Live rock extravaganza dazzles 10,000 strong crowd in Hue

THUA THIEN-HUE (VNS)— Vietnamese and foreigners, both on stage and in the audience, have rocked Hue City during the live performance of RockStorm.

At about 6pm on Saturday night, thousands of fans packed the performance platform, set in the centre of the local Tu Do Stadium, while lines of fans continued to pour into the stadium and fill seats.

The rock concert welcomed people of different ages, nationalities, and from all walks of life. Some tens of minutes after the show started, with a kick-off performance by Oringchains, organizers announced that total attendance was 10,000, a remarkable number at a show of noise in a tranquil city.

Shouts from the audience, the burning performance by the bands, and sounds, music and light, vibrated through the city in an evening that many called a "night of full passion".

"It's so much fun and I feel a lot of energy. Bustling music and boisterous fans blow away the coldness of the Hue winter, as well as my shyness," said local resident Quoc Anh.

Others said that the show offered them a great chance to join other fans who also love rock.

Young residents and students at many universities in Hue made up the majority of the audience, as well as hundreds of foreigners who are working in or visiting the city.

"It is an awesome festival with great musicians and we will keep this moment in our minds from this journey," says Pether Gehrling, a German who is on holiday in Hue. He attended the show with his friends.

On stage, the bands performed in various styles of rock, from rock mixed electro, thrash metal, modern rock, death metal to progressive or hard rock.

Performers also included foreigners, such as Black Infinity, which has a foreign drummer, while Microwave employs a foreign bass guitarist.

The bands performed in order, starting with Oringchains, and followed by Titanium, PAK Band, Black Infinity, Ngu Cung and Microwave. The audience gave the most applause to PAK Band, with songs that mix rock and Vietnamese folk songs, and Microwave, which displayed patriotic themes on the backdrop during their performance.

An animation of Vietnamese mandarins defeating northern invaders was shown, while national flags appeared on the backdrop when Microwave performed.

Also, a photo of General Vo Nguyen Giap was printed on a T-shirt worn by Titanium band's vocalist during his performance.

Mobile phone carrier Mobifone, organiser of the show that has been touring the country from Hai Phong, Hue and coming to Da Nang, Dong Nai, HCM City, Can Tho and Ha Noi, announced part of ticket revenues is to be donated to Operation Smile programme to pay for cleft palate operations. The remaining money would be used to assist poor students in Hue. — VNS